Should I practice diagramming in my head?

JohnnyKarate

Should I start taking the time to practice diagramming LR (especially SA) questions in my head more than actually writing the diagram down? Anyone have any experience with this?

goingfor99th

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "in your head," but I'll give your question a shot. I think the most efficient test-takers end up doing most of their work "in their heads," but that will happen only as a result of lots and lots of work written out by hand (tactile learning, visual learning) over many months. The ability to do work "in your head" comes as a result of highly-skilled subconscious and conscious mental processes, which require countless hours of training to develop.

Diagrams are critical to success on LG for most of us. I love my diagrams and would never think to give them up if I wanted to learn as efficiently as possible. I'm also fairly certain that LG are specifically designed to be impossible to perfect under time without the use of some sort of diagram.

keets993

Yeah, I think as goingfor99th stated, it's something that happens through practice. I've read that most high scorers usually don't diagram during LR. You internalize it enough that you don't necessarily need to write it down for SA and MBT or PMoR. But if trying to do it in your head decreases your efficiency and you get a question wrong that you normally would've gotten right had you taken 30 seconds to diagram then I think it's a matter of trying to maximize your points.

Cant Get Right

Agreed with above posts. At a certain point, many people do need to actively practice this in order to break the habit of diagramming and force the transition, but looks like you’re about a week in, so I think that’s not something you’ll need to worry about for awhile! Good job seeing ahead though. Long term goals!

Seeking Perfection

@"trevor.sikes" said:
Should I start taking the time to practice diagramming LR (especially SA) questions in my head more than actually writing the diagram down? Anyone have any experience with this?

I just only diagrammed the ones I couldn't easilly solve in my head.

You could definitely start doing this. Answer if you can without diagramming and if not diagram.

Overtime through practice and by diagramming there were fewer and fewer ones I needed to diagram to solve, but it was always a nice back up option if I was stuck.